Snowflake ARA-C01 Practice Test - Questions Answers, Page 13

Zero-copy cloning is a feature that allows creating a clone of a table, schema, or database without physically copying the data. Zero-copy cloning is suitable for scenarios where the cloned object needs to have the same data and metadata as the original object, and where the cloned object does not need to be modified or updated frequently.Zero-copy cloning is also suitable for scenarios where the cloned object needs to be shared within the same Snowflake account or across different accounts in the same cloud region2

However, zero-copy cloning is not suitable for scenarios where the cloned object needs to have different data or metadata than the original object, or where the cloned object needs to be modified or updated frequently. Zero-copy cloning is also not suitable for scenarios where the cloned object needs to be shared across different accounts in different cloud regions.In these scenarios, copying of data would be required, either by using the COPY INTO command or by using data sharing with secure views3

The following are examples of development and testing scenarios where copying of data would be required, and zero-copy cloning would not be suitable:

Developers create their own datasets to work against transformed versions of the live data. This scenario requires copying of data because the developers need to modify the data or metadata of the cloned object to perform transformations, such as adding, deleting, or updating columns, rows, or values.Zero-copy cloning would not be suitable because it would create a read-only clone that shares the same data and metadata as the original object, and any changes made to the clone would affect the original object as well4

Data is in a production Snowflake account that needs to be provided to Developers in a separate development/testing Snowflake account in the same cloud region. This scenario requires copying of data because the data needs to be shared across different accounts in the same cloud region. Zero-copy cloning would not be suitable because it would create a clone within the same account as the original object, and it would not allow sharing the clone with another account.To share data across different accounts in the same cloud region, data sharing with secure views or COPY INTO command can be used5

The following are examples of development and testing scenarios where zero-copy cloning would be suitable, and copying of data would not be required:

Production and development run in different databases in the same account, and Developers need to see production-like data but with specific columns masked. This scenario can use zero-copy cloning because the data needs to be shared within the same account, and the cloned object does not need to have different data or metadata than the original object. Zero-copy cloning can create a clone of the production database in the development database, and the clone can have the same data and metadata as the original database.To mask specific columns, secure views can be created on top of the clone, and the developers can access the secure views instead of the clone directly6

Developers create their own copies of a standard test database previously created for them in the development account, for their initial development and unit testing. This scenario can use zero-copy cloning because the data needs to be shared within the same account, and the cloned object does not need to have different data or metadata than the original object. Zero-copy cloning can create a clone of the standard test database for each developer, and the clone can have the same data and metadata as the original database.The developers can use the clone for their initial development and unit testing, and any changes made to the clone would not affect the original database or other clones7

The release process requires pre-production testing of changes with data of production scale and complexity. For security reasons, pre-production also runs in the production account. This scenario can use zero-copy cloning because the data needs to be shared within the same account, and the cloned object does not need to have different data or metadata than the original object. Zero-copy cloning can create a clone of the production database in the pre-production database, and the clone can have the same data and metadata as the original database.The pre-production testing can use the clone to test the changes with data of production scale and complexity, and any changes made to the clone would not affect the original database or the production environment8Reference:

1: SnowPro Advanced: Architect | Study Guide9

2: Snowflake Documentation | Cloning Overview

3: Snowflake Documentation | Loading Data Using COPY into a Table

4: Snowflake Documentation | Transforming Data During a Load

5: Snowflake Documentation | Data Sharing Overview

6: Snowflake Documentation | Secure Views

7: Snowflake Documentation | Cloning Databases, Schemas, and Tables

8: Snowflake Documentation | Cloning for Testing and Development

:SnowPro Advanced: Architect | Study Guide

:Cloning Overview

:Loading Data Using COPY into a Table

:Transforming Data During a Load

:Data Sharing Overview

:Secure Views

:Cloning Databases, Schemas, and Tables

:Cloning for Testing and Development

Data sharing is a feature that allows Snowflake accounts to share data with each other without the need for data movement or copying1.Data sharing is enabled by creating shares, which are collections of database objects (tables, views, secure views, and secure UDFs) that can be accessed by other accounts, called consumers2.

By default, Snowflake does not allow sharing data from a Business Critical edition account to a non-Business Critical edition account.This is because Business Critical edition offers higher levels of data protection and encryption than other editions, and sharing data with lower editions may compromise the security and compliance of the data3.

However, Snowflake provides the OVERRIDE SHARE RESTRICTIONS global privilege, which allows a user to override the default restriction and share data from a Business Critical edition account to a non-Business Critical edition account.This privilege is granted to the ACCOUNTADMIN role by default, and can be granted to other roles as well4.

To enable data sharing from a Business Critical edition account to an Enterprise edition account, the following steps are required34:

A user in the provider account with the OVERRIDE SHARE RESTRICTIONS privilege must create or alter a share and add the Enterprise edition account as a consumer. The user must also set the share_restrictions parameter to False when adding the consumer. This parameter indicates whether the share is restricted to Business Critical edition accounts only. Setting it to False allows the share to be imported by lower edition accounts.

A user in the consumer account with the IMPORT SHARE privilege must import the share and grant access to the share objects to other roles in the account. The user must also set the share_restrictions parameter to False when importing the share. This parameter indicates whether the consumer account accepts shares from Business Critical edition accounts only. Setting it to False allows the consumer account to import shares from lower edition accounts.

1: Introduction to Secure Data Sharing | Snowflake Documentation

2: Creating Secure Data Shares | Snowflake Documentation

3: Enable Data Share:Business Critical Account to Lower Edition | Medium

4: Enabling sharing from a Business critical account to a non-business ... | Snowflake Documentation

Snowflake Connector for Kafka and Snowpipe are two ingestion methods that can be used to load near real-time data by using the messaging services provided by a cloud provider. Snowflake Connector for Kafka enables you to stream structured and semi-structured data from Apache Kafka topics into Snowflake tables. Snowpipe enables you to load data from files that are continuously added to a cloud storage location, such as Amazon S3 or Azure Blob Storage. Both methods leverage Snowflake's micro-partitioning and columnar storage to optimize data ingestion and query performance. Snowflake streams and Spark are not ingestion methods, but rather components of the Snowflake architecture. Snowflake streams provide change data capture (CDC) functionality by tracking data changes in a table. Spark is a distributed computing framework that can be used to process large-scale data and write it to Snowflake using the Snowflake Spark Connector.Reference:

Snowflake Connector for Kafka

Snowpipe

Snowflake Streams

Snowflake Spark Connector

The get command in SnowSQL is a convenient way to download files from an internal stage to a local directory. The get command can be used in interactive mode or in a script, and it supports wildcards and parallel downloads.The get command also allows specifying the overwrite option, which determines how to handle existing files with the same name2

The Snowflake Connector for Python, the Snowflake API endpoint, and the get command in Snowsight are not recommended methods for downloading files from an internal stage, because they require more operational overhead than the get command in SnowSQL. The Snowflake Connector for Python and the Snowflake API endpoint require writing and maintaining code to handle the connection, authentication, and file transfer.The get command in Snowsight requires using the web interface and manually selecting the files to download34Reference:

1: SnowPro Advanced: Architect | Study Guide

2: Snowflake Documentation | Using the GET Command

3: Snowflake Documentation | Using the Snowflake Connector for Python

4: Snowflake Documentation | Using the Snowflake API

: Snowflake Documentation | Using the GET Command in Snowsight

:SnowPro Advanced: Architect | Study Guide

:Using the GET Command

:Using the Snowflake Connector for Python

:Using the Snowflake API

: [Using the GET Command in Snowsight]

A clustering key is a subset of columns or expressions that are used to co-locate the data in the same micro-partitions, which are the units of storage in Snowflake. Clustering can improve the performance of queries that filter on the clustering key columns, as it reduces the amount of data that needs to be scanned. The best choice for a clustering key depends on the query patterns and the data distribution in the table. In this case, the columns DeviceId, IOT_timestamp, and CustomerId are frequently used in the filter predicate for the select statement, which means they are good candidates for the clustering key. The columns City and DeviceManufacturer are often retrieved, but not filtered on, so they are not as important for the clustering key. The column UniqueId is used for counting, but it is not a good choice for the clustering key, as it is likely to have a high cardinality and a uniform distribution, which means it will not help to co-locate the data. Therefore, the best option is to use DeviceId and CustomerId as the clustering key, as they can help to prune the micro-partitions and speed up the queries.Reference:Clustering Keys & Clustered Tables,Micro-partitions & Data Clustering,A Complete Guide to Snowflake Clustering

The most efficient way to load data from the vendor into Snowflake is to create an external stage on Google Cloud Storage and use the external table to load the data into Snowflake (Option B). This way, you can avoid copying or moving the data across different cloud platforms, which can incur additional costs and latency. You can also leverage the external table feature to query the data directly from Google Cloud Storage without loading it into Snowflake tables, which can save storage space and improve performance. Option A is not efficient because it requires the vendor to create a Snowflake account and a data share, which can be complicated and costly. Option C is not efficient because it involves copying the data from Google Cloud Storage to Azure Blob storage using external tools, which can be slow and expensive. Option D is not efficient because it requires creating a Snowflake account in the Google Cloud Platform (GCP), ingesting data into this account, and using data replication to move the data from GCP to Azure, which can be complex and time-consuming.Reference: The answer can be verified from Snowflake's official documentation on external stages and external tables available on their website. Here are some relevant links:

Using External Stages | Snowflake Documentation

Using External Tables | Snowflake Documentation

Loading Data from a Stage | Snowflake Documentation

Snowpipe is a service that automates and optimizes the loading of data from external stages into Snowflake tables. Snowpipe uses a queue to ingest files as they become available in the stage.Snowpipe also provides REST endpoints to load data and retrieve load history reports1. The loadHistoryScan endpoint returns the history of files that have been ingested by Snowpipe within a specified time range.The endpoint accepts the following parameters2: pipe: The fully-qualified name of the pipe to query. startTimeInclusive: The start of the time range to query, in ISO 8601 format. The value must be within the past 14 days. endTimeExclusive: The end of the time range to query, in ISO 8601 format. The value must be later than the start time and within the past 14 days. recentFirst: A boolean flag that indicates whether to return the most recent files first or last. The default value is false, which means the oldest files are returned first. showSkippedFiles: A boolean flag that indicates whether to include files that were skipped by Snowpipe in the response. The default value is false, which means only files that were loaded are returned. The loadHistoryScan endpoint can be used to keep a log of data load history by calling it periodically with a suitable time range. The best option among the choices is D, which is to call loadHistoryScan every 10 minutes for a 15-minute time range. This option ensures that the endpoint is called frequently enough to capture the latest files that have been ingested, and that the time range is wide enough to avoid missing any files that may have been delayed or retried by Snowpipe.The other options are either too infrequent, too narrow, or use the wrong endpoint3.

1: Introduction to Snowpipe | Snowflake Documentation

2: loadHistoryScan | Snowflake Documentation

3: Monitoring Snowpipe Load History | Snowflake Documentation

If an AWS Administrator accidentally deletes the SQS subscription to the SNS topic in Step 2, the pipe that references the topic to receive event messages from Amazon S3 will no longer be able to receive the messages. This is because the SQS subscription is the link between the SNS topic and the Snowpipe notification channel. Without the subscription, the SNS topic will not be able to send notifications to the Snowpipe queue, and the pipe will not be triggered to load the new files. To restore the system immediately, the user needs to manually create a new SNS topic with a different name and then recreate the pipe by specifying the new SNS topic name in the pipe definition. This will create a new notification channel and a new SQS subscription for the pipe. Alternatively, the user can also recreate the SQS subscription to the existing SNS topic and then alter the pipe to use the same SNS topic name in the pipe definition. This will also restore the notification channel and the pipe functionality.Reference:

Automating Snowpipe for Amazon S3

Enabling Snowpipe Error Notifications for Amazon SNS

HowTo: Configuration steps for Snowpipe Auto-Ingest with AWS S3 Stages